1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a range finder for a passive type autofocusing device so arranged that light rays emitted from a scene to be photographed are picked up to find a range to the scene and the objective is adjustably brought into focus based on the result of the range finding.
2. Prior Art
The autofocusing device is used to find a shooting range for a photographic camera or the like in automatic mode and to bring the object into focus based on a result of the range finding and such autofocusing device allows everyone to enjoy photographing easily. Various types of autofocusing devices have already been developed and most of them employ the trigonometrical range finding method. A typical autofocusing device relying on this trigonometrical range finding method is so-called passive-type autofocusing device adapted to pick up light rays emitted from the scene by photosensors provided on the camera and thereby to find a shooting range.
Some of the passive-type autofocusing devices include a pair of photosensors. However, if the scene includes two objects being in contrast with each other, such range finder provided with a pair of photosensors disadvantageously indicates two different states of the single scene to be photographed and consequently cannot achieve a reliable range finding, necessarily resulting in a picture which is out of focus.
To assure a reliable range finding and thereby to obtain a well-focused picture, the applicant of this application has previously proposed a range finding mechanism comprising three photodetector arrays (Japanese Patent Application No. 1989-177382, Japanese Patent Application Disclosure Gazette No. 1991-42642). A principle of range finding by this range finding mechanism will be described in reference with FIGS. 23 and 24 of the attached drawing. The range finding mechanism comprises a reference photosensor 1, a first photosensor 2 and a second photosensor 3. These photosensors 1, 2, 3 comprise, in turn, imaging lenses 1a, 2a, 3a and photodetector arrays 1b, 2b, 3b, respectively, so that a scene to be photographed is imaged through the imaging lenses 1a, 2a, 3a on the photodetector arrays 1b, 2b, 3b, respectively. FIG. 23 illustrates a case in which the scene P comprises a single object. Now, referring to FIG. 23, X.sub.0 represents a displacement of an output signal P.sub.0 relating to a luminance distribution on the object P detected by the reference photodetector array 1b with respect to an optical axis T.sub.0 of the reference photosensor 1, X.sub.1 represents a displacement of an output signal P.sub.1 relating to a luminance distribution on the object P detected by the first photodetector array 2b with respect to an optical axis T.sub.1 of the first photosensor 2, and X.sub.2 represents a displacement of an output signal P.sub.2 relating to a luminance distribution on the object P detected by the second photodetector array 3b with respect to an optical axis T.sub.2 of the second photosensor 3. These displacements X.sub.0, X.sub.1, X.sub.2 represents phase differences relating to the luminance distribution on the object detected by the photodetector arrays 1b, 2b, 3b, respectively. Assume that the optical axes T.sub.0, T.sub.1, T.sub.2 are spaced from one another by distance B, photodetective surfaces of the photodetector arrays 1b, 2b, 3b are spaced from the respective imaging lenses 1a, 2a, 3a by distance A, and the object P lies at a distance Lp from the imaging lenses 1a, 2a, 3a and at a distance X from the optical axis T.sub.0, the following equation is derived from the principle of trigonometrical survey: EQU X=x.sub.0 *Lp/A (1)
If a direction in which the output signal image appears with respect to the optical axis T.sub.0 is taken into account, EQU -x.sub.1 =(B-X)/Lp*A (2) EQU x.sub.2 =(B+X)/Lp*A (3)
If the equation (1) is substituted for these equations (2), (3), respectively, EQU x.sub.1 =(B/Lp)*A+x.sub.0 ( 4) EQU x.sub.2 =(B/Lp)*A+x.sub.0 ( 5)
Comparison of the equations (4) and (5) indicates that x.sub.1 and x.sub.2 are displaced with respect to a reference x.sub.0, respectively, by an amount EQU (B/Lp)*A=Xp (6)
Accordingly, this Xp may be obtained to compute EQU Lp=A*B/Xp (7)
The procedure used to obtain the Xp will be explained in reference with FIG. 24. FIG. 24(a) illustrates output signals relating to the luminance distribution detected by the photodetector arrays 1b, 2b, 3b expose to light rays emitted from two objects with respect to reference output signals P.sub.0, Q.sub.0. From the state of FIG. 24(a) to the state of FIG. 24(b), the output signal waveforms P.sub.1, P.sub.2 may be shifted with respect to the output waveform P.sub.0 until these output signal waveforms P.sub.0, P.sub.1, P.sub.2 coincide with one another to obtain an amount of the displacement Xp. More specifically, at this moment of coincidence, P.sub.1 and P.sub.2 have been displaced by an equal amount. Accordingly, when the three output signal waveforms coincide with one another after the output signal of the photodetector array 2b and the output signal of the photodetector array 3b have been shifted by an equal amount, as seen in FIG. 24(a) the waveforms of these three output signals will provided the data relating to the same object P. Next, as illustrated by FIG. 24(c), the output signal Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2 may be shifted with respect to the output signal Q.sub.0 until the output signal Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2 coincide with the output signal Q.sub.0 to obtain an amount of the displacement Xq.
Based on the Xp, Xq obtained in the manner as has been described above, the ranges Lp, Lq to the objects P, Q, respectively, are computed according to the equation (7).
The range finder for passive type autofocusing device utilizing the principal as has been mentioned above has already been proposed by the applicant of the present patent application (for example, Japanese Patent Application Disclosure Gazette No. 1992-260011, U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,415). With this range finder, the line sensor of charge accumulation type is used as the photosensor, the secondary difference of the luminarice distribution obtained by the line sensor is computed and the zero-cross behaviors of the secondary difference are compared with one another for range finding.
However, used of the charge accumulation type line sensor gives rise to various problems. Specifically, for a scene to be photographed of relatively low luminance, it is inconveniently required to stand by until a sufficient amount of charge is accumulated in the line sensor, so the time required for range finding and therefore for photographing is correspondingly prolonged. For a moving object to be photographed, the optimum shutter chance is available only once and at an instant, so prolongation of the time required for desired amount of charge accumulation may disadvantageously move the object across the resultant picture or the picture being out of focus due to insufficient range finding. Consequently, It is forced to reduce the luminance range of object or scene to be effectively photographed so that the charge accumulation can be completed within a shorter time.
However, reduction of the luminarice range utilized to make a range finding for a scene or object to be photographed reduces the range within which the scene or object can be properly photographed, detracting a versatility of the photographic camera.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a range finder for passive type autofocusing device allowing the line sensor to accumulate charge in a short time even for the scene or object of a relatively low luminance and allowing a desired range finding to be achieved in a short time even for the scene or object of a relatively wide luminarice range.